The male urethra is generally a tubular passageway extending from the bladder to the end of the penis. As urine travels from the bladder and out of the body, the urine passes through four sections of the urethra, referred to as the prostatic urethra, the membranous urethra, the bulbar urethra, and the pendulous or distal urethra. Surrounding the prostatic urethra and below the bladder is a prostate gland, which, among other functions, produces the fluid in semen.
A urological condition that some, mostly male, patients experience is blockage of the urethra. For instance, prostate enlargement, also known as benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), is a common affliction experienced by some men. The condition involves swelling of the prostate, which prevents passage of urine from the bladder and consequently makes urination difficult or impossible. Prostate cancer is another affliction suffered by some men and may lead to many of the same symptoms as BPH.
BPH is often treated by surgically removing the excess prostatic tissue from the interior region of the prostate that is pressing on the urethra. This removal usually relieves the obstruction and the incomplete emptying of the bladder caused by the BPH, leaving the rest of the prostatic tissue intact.
During a transurethral resection of the prostate gland (TURP) procedure, a surgeon uses an electrosurgical cutting loop to remove the obstructing tissue from the prostate. The electrosurgical cutting loop typically uses radio frequency (RF) electricity to “shave” off small pieces of the targeted prostate tissue from the interior of the prostate. The pieces of prostatic tissue excised by the RF electrosurgical loop are typically small enough to rapidly flush out using irrigation fluid, aspirated out using, for example, a large bore syringe, or grasped and removed.
The holmium laser resection of the prostate (HOLRP) procedure uses laser light from a holmium laser system to remove the targeted prostatic tissue. The laser light cuts the excess tissue from the interior of the prostate while coagulating the underlying tissue. The holmium laser may reduce the time period needed to resect the necessary tissue off of the prostate because the laser resects large pieces of tissue from the enlarged prostate at one time.